Video Project: What format for Final Cut Express 4 ?

Hey everyone,

I have this project due, along with a paper, where I decided to make a DVD containing some video montages to be watched as you read the paper. So anyway, I finally got FCE4 to be able to make something as "professional-looking" as possible. I'm not too worried about learning to use it, if I dont find enough tutorials online, I will self-teach myself since I have a whole school year to turn it in.

So what I'm planning on doing is ripping DVDs from the TV show I'm working on, cutting and adding transitions, and organizing them in menus by theme on the final DVD.

However, I have a question which might seem stupid, but kind of worth asking:

1°)
Do I need to cut and trim the videos in another application first, and then import them into FCE, or should I just do it directly in FCE4?

2°)
Also, what format should I work with? I've already ripped all the episodes in .avi, which FCE4 does not seem to like too much!

sorry, I'm a total newbie when it comes to video editing!

Thanks for your answers everyone,

BS0D.

UP !

Anyone?

I don't see a need for using another application because that is what FCE can do. But, if you are passing the clips through another tool that can zero in on just the parts you are interested in, then that sounds like a great idea because you'll only use the disk space needed for the project.

Why have you created .avi files when you know (you do now) FCE can't handle them natively. Create QuickTime files and the preferable codec to use is the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). The audio should be PCM at 48khz I believe. Test with a small clip to confirm this.

By the way, your post really belongs in the "Movies and Video" forum section. If you have other video editing questions that forum is a great place to search and post questions. For instance search for "convert avi to quicktime" and I'm sure you'll find a good answer for that question.

xstep said:

Why have you created .avi files when you know (you do now) FCE can't handle them natively. Create QuickTime files and the preferable codec to use is the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). The audio should be PCM at 48khz I believe. Test with a small clip to confirm this.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your answer xstep
I do know that now, I was just looking for the right QuickTime kind of file. I'll give it a try with what you just told me, and see...

xstep said:

By the way, your post really belongs in the "Movies and Video" forum section. If you have other video editing questions that forum is a great place to search and post questions. For instance search for "convert avi to quicktime" and I'm sure you'll find a good answer for that question.

Click to expand...

Yeah, wasn't sure where to post this -- As for the conversion, I'll do the whole conversion again since I'm afraid the quality will be lower by going from .vob to .avi and then to .mov (or whatever!)...

I'll be sure to let you know how this works out.

BS0D